TomFear » graeppelensee

The mountain in the mirror lake

admin — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 16:34:55 +0000

When the moon is shining, you can’t see the milkyway no more. But you can still see the stars, also if you shoot directly into the moon.
Here at the Graeppelensee, you know, where you can get wet feet, is the the near 2400m high mountain Schofberg, reflecting in the water. Meanwhile I am stalking with good footgear in the swampy area around. But at the end I reached my car with dry feet, thanks to the good shoes.

The swampy lake

admin — Sat, 03 May 2014 15:11:42 +0000

You know the nice pictures with the mirrored mountains in it? It will not work, if it is windy, like here. Not strong, but strong enough to get a dull surface.
Instead of a mirror lake I’ve got a slight view of the northern part from the milky way. It is not so clear, but you can recognize it. I couldn’t get nearer to the lake, because it was too swampy and the danger was I could become wet feet again.

Stars over the sheep mountain

admin — Sat, 26 Apr 2014 17:04:36 +0000

Why sheep mountain? I don’t know why, they called this mountain ‘Schafsberg’. This is one of my first nightshot with only two images. I used an astronomical tracking and so I could make an image with an exposure time of 120 seconds. Therefore I could shoot with only 800 ISO and I get a much more crisp image, with a lots of details in the landscape.
Ah btw, this is the same place where I had wet feet last time. But this time I was wearing better shoes and there was anyway no snow anymore

Northern lights – Swiss version

admin — Sat, 05 Apr 2014 15:30:26 +0000

Some of you know this image, it’s my profiles background. And maybe you want to know the story behind it.
Once upon a time in Switzerland at a beautiful warm spring day I was hiking to the Graeppelensee. It was the day I had the bad experience with a unexpected snow field, the snow field where I get wet feet! Did I ever mentioned, that I hate wet feet? Okay, I was standing in the snow with wet feet, took some pictures and was angry about the whole situation. At this point the clouds where hiding the moon and the landscape sunk in darkness.
But hey, I had I speedlight with me, no, no Mrs. Nature – not with me! So I could brighten up the foreground, while the background still had moonlight.
And now about the strange light in the sky. These are clouds, brighten up by sodium vapor lamps of all the villages around the mountains. And because the clouds are moving fast and I shoot slow, they smeared to this cool effect.

The moon in the mirror lake

admin — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 17:33:39 +0000

It was the night with the wet feet, you may remember. I was standing there, with my wet feet and took this image before the clouds are closing the whole sky. But it was not so worse, because the clouds are not getting thicker and the stars becomes a glow through the clouds. So beside the main annoyance I get a very nice picture from the moon. And maybe I has not told you but: I hate wet feet!